Friday, March 16, 2018
4th Week of Lent
1st Reading: Wis 2:1a, 12–22
Gospel: Jn 7:1–2, 10, 25–30
(…) Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the man they want to kill? And here he is speaking freely, and they don’t say a word to him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Christ? Yet we know where this man comes from; but when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
So Jesus announced in a loud voice in the Temple court where he was teaching, “You say that you know me and know where I come from! I have not come of myself; I was sent by the One who is true, and you don’t know him. I know him for I come from him and he sent me.”
They would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him because his time had not yet come.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In a catechism class in Cebu the Catechist asked: “Taga-diin si Hesus?” The only tagalog-speaking pupil in the class replied: “Sir, hindi po taga-diin si Hesus, siya po ang idiniin.”
Dissonance occurs either because some words used in the communication are ambiguous or parties to the communication are not open to each other. The former is easy to address, as a simple clarification often works to dispel the ambiguity of the language. The latter, if the enmity is deep-seated, can be a problem too big to resolve.
The foregoing hilarious anecdote is a case of simple miscommunication. Addressing the problem is as simple as clarifying that “diin” for Cebuanos is a question about someone’s origin, while for Tagalogs it has something to do with the act of pushing or pinning down. As a figure of speech it describes an act of orchestrating crisis against a person. The motive is always to pin the person down regardless of evidence to his favor.
Today’s Gospel is a case of dissonance resulting from enmity. The Jews were too prejudiced to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt. Thus when Jesus, talking about the Father, said, “I know him for I come from him and he sent me,” the Jews were quick to convict him of the crime of blasphemy. As a man coming from Galilee, such claim was sufficient proof to pin him down.
“A little learning is a very dangerous thing”, wrote Alexander Pope in An Essay on Criticism (1709). The Jews were too sure of what they knew about Jesus’ origin. But they should have given it a second thought, especially because the miracles he did were too glaring to be brushed aside. Biased people are like that. Their default paradigm is to pin down the other party regardless of possible merit.
We all insist that we believe Jesus is from above. Yet our lifestyle pins us down. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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